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Monday, 8 June 2015

ANTIMEDIA﻿On Monday, the world stopped turning to focus on the recent debut of Caitlyn Jenner, the Olympic athlete formerly known as Bruce. Jenner, the ex-husband of Kris Jenner and stepfather to Kim Kardashian, took a bold step in announcing her completed transition into the woman she always felt she was. She posed on the cover of Vanity Fair to premiere her new identity. This a monumental step forward for the transgender community that many hope will help foster increased tolerance in society. While this is a positive development, the degree of media attention devoted to the celebrity news story left many other equally important stories ignored.While the world was debating whether or not it was Jenner’s right to become a woman, here are ten significant stories that deserve equal, if not more, attention:1. Rand Paul received widespread coverage for delaying the Patriot Act’s renewal at the end of May. As a result of his filibuster and congressional inaction, the Patriot Act and its Section 215—one of the NSA’s justifications for bulk data collection—expired on Monday. Though this was lauded as a victory, this week the Senate pushed through the USA Freedom Act, selling it as a bill to respect the privacy of Americans. In actuality, it renews and arguably strengthens the government surveillance apparatus.2. On Tuesday, news broke that the FBI has been conducting warrantless surveillance across the United States using a fleet of planes disguised as private aircrafts. It was responsible for mysterious planes flying over the Baltimore protests in May and surveilled as many as 40,000 people in one flight over Anaheim, California. In similar news, it was revealed this week that a single local police department conducted over 300 warrantless searches using highly secretive and controversial Stingray technology.3. This week, NBC was caught manipulating footage of a witness interview to make the police shooting of unarmed college student, Feras Morad, seem less sinister to its audience. His death was one of nearly 400 police killings logged this year, alone.4. In what appears to be good news, Congress moved this week to require police to report all killings and uses of force committed on duty. There has previously been no requirement and only 750 of 17,000 police departments voluntarily report such data. The law also requires reporting of police deaths on duty (this was already codified in a law passed in May) but nevertheless, signifies a growing shift toward police accountability.5. A Department of Homeland Security investigation found that in 95% of cases, the TSA failed to find weapons and mock explosives smuggled through airports. Undercover DHS agents managed to sneak through 67 of 70 incidents without any hassle from the TSA, the administration that claims its services are necessary to keep Americans safe.6. A “high value” Guantanamo detainee, Majid Khan, alleged this week that he was tortured by CIA agents with tactics worse than previously revealed. Though the Senate’s December torture report detailed gruesome techniques including forced rectal feeding and sleep deprivation, Khan claims he was sexually abused, hung nude from beams, and had his genitals dipped in ice water—among other offenses.7. In a continuing, unsettling pattern, three more stories came to light of bankers meeting their death. The executive of American Express died mysteriously on an international flight while another jumped off the 24th floor of his apartment building in an apparent drug-induced suicide. Another story released this week detailed a Goldman Sachs employee found dead in her car in April. They join a growing list of bankers whose lives have ended prematurely.8. In an all too common pattern, news surfaced this week that local police in Palm Beach, Florida engaged in illicit activity. As Anti-Media reported, “At least one minor and at least one sex-worker were invited to a private party on a golf course that was held by members of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Department in 2012. Witnesses reported that members of the party were openly using cocaine and that the woman who attended the party was walking around the golf course fully nude.” This parallels the DEA’s recent drug cartel-funded prostitute party scandal as well as a plethora of cases where police use and sell “illicit” substances.9. In a “once-in-a-century” discovery, archeologists in Russia discovered 2,400-year-old golden bongs. They contained trace amounts of opium and marijuana, suggesting (as the Palm Beach cop cocaine soiree does) that seeking altered states of consciousness is not a crime, but human nature. The findings further prove the failed war on drugs to be futile and obsolete.10. A declassified Pentagon report revealed this week that Western governments helped to create ISIS, the infamous terrorist organization. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency report, “US and other western governments allied themselves with al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups to oust Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad. They suspected the consequences of this tactic would lead to the rise of an ‘Islamic State.’”While Caitlyn Jenner’s transition into femininity is a newsworthy and ultimately positive story, the media’s incessant focus on celebrity gossip leaves a vast majority of relevant stories on the sidelines. If in a matter of several days this many stories could go uncovered by the mainstream media, consider how many have been sacrificed over the years in the name of covering celebrity deaths, weddings, breakdowns, and divorces—which come without the social progress of Caitlyn’s debut.

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The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults. We have been blinded to the depravity of our ruling elite by the relentless propaganda of public relations firms that work on behalf of corporations and the rich.

We need to remember that, psychopaths and other personality disordered individuals really have no choice but to be what they are; they are like forces of nature. But normal human beings DO have a choice as to whether they will accept abuse or not. By accepting abuse, they give power to the psychopaths to abuse others so it is not just a matter of self-preservation; it is a matter of making sure that our children have a future. It seems that, in a world where the people cannot or will not, rise up against psychopathy in power, the Cosmos will do it for them, and take them out as well for their silence and their weakness. The bottom line is, nobody and no event is going to “save” anyone. It is only human beings, individually and collectively, who have the power to BE salvation.” – Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Plans for control of the evil forces that have been loosed in the world, attempts to compensate the evil- doing by good works or sympathy for the victims, efforts to safeguard the peace or to effect ideal solutions of all the material problems involved, can do little to change the nature of the situation. The real problem, namely, the question of what can be done for civilization in face of the nonhuman forces arising from the collective unconscious in thousands or rather millions of individual persons, will remain untouched. However, if only one human being has met and solved the problem in himself, he will be a living demonstration of a solution. Such an individual carries with him the germ of a renaissance of the spiritual values of mankind.

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